Results tagged “power”

Northridge: 1, 476There have been multiple reports of damage to buildings and due to fallen trees all over the city. At about 7 last night a tree fell onto the Pilgrim Community Church in South Los Angeles and as a result the "building has been red-tagged," reports abc7, noting that a tree fell onto a parked car at Burbank Boulevard and Topanga Canyon as well, and another in Long Beach. "In Pacoima, a camper broke the fall of a tree, and a Jack in the Box sign flew off at Sherman Way and Coldwater Canyon in North Hollywood."

The wind yesterday afternoon came in strong, running amok through Southland streets, making a mess of palm fronds and zapping the power our for tens of thousands.

Thousands across Los Angeles are without power today, according to the L.A. Department of Water and Power. Some 20,000 customers in the greater South Los Angeles area are affected. In portions of Studio City and North Hollywood, about 1,100 customers are without power. Outages have always been reported in East Los Angeles, Mid City, and Woodland Hills. The department has increased the amount of crews working on power restoration.

The Station Fire is not only threatening homes across the region and broadcast towers on Mount Wilson, but also the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's two 500 KV transmission lines northeast of the Acton. "These high-voltage power lines are critical to maintaining a steady supply of power to the city, especially as demand for energy rises throughout the day," the department made in a statement noting that all in-basin power plants have been activated to generate energy.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigasa may want Los Angeles to be the greenest city in the country and San Francisco may be popularly referred to as one of the greenest, but when it comes to solar power, San Diego is king when it comes to California big cities, according to a report released by Environment California. The city leads with 2,267 solar roofs. By contrast, San Francisco has 1,493 with Los Angeles trailing behind at 1,432. "But when it comes to per capita installations, little Nevada City, Calif., topped the list, with nearly 1 in 5 households hosting a solar system," noted the LA Times. "City of Industry, outside Los Angeles, had the most capacity per capita, with 1.5 kilowatts installed per person. The bad news: Solar power still accounts for less than 1% of energy nationwide."

90 miles east of Los Angeles sits this billboard telling Mayor Villaraigosa to cut it out. But why do people far away from LA care? It's the controversial Green Path Power Project, a plan that would bring geothermal, solar, wind and other renewable energy from the Salton Sea area of Imperial Valley to Los Angeles via a new yet-to-built electrical transmission line.

A minor car crash caused a fairly good sized power outage this morning, leaving 2,200 cusotmers without power in Westchester and Del Rey. The car hit and pulled a guide wire--the suspension wire usually seen at a 45-degree angle from the power pole to the sidewalk--causing the power to go out. Crews are on scene addressing the problem, but the LA Department of Water & Power has no estimate of when power will be restored. No one was reported to be injured in the crash.

It's not the nicest way to wake up on what is a holiday for many: A large tree fell over during the rainstorm this morning in Laurel Canyon, "knocking down three power poles, blocking Wonderland Avenue and interrupting electricity to about 1,700 customers," according to the Daily News.

In a press conference held at 8:00 this morning, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa addressed the continuing concerns for the City of Los Angeles created by the Sayre Fire, which is being battled by a "unified command" of the LA Fire Department, the LA County Fire Department, the US Forestry Service, and the LAPD.

After yesterday's announcement of an $160 million settlement in the case where the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power "knowingly overcharged State and local governmental agencies for electricity (as the State Attorney's Office put it)," the city agency released a statement online only (mysteriously, it wasn't e-mailed). Basically, they say everything is fine and dandy and not to worry about your bills:

Don't worry (yet), the DWP's overcharging scandal only involves governmental customers such as Metro, LA County and LA Unified School District. “The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had been imposing illegal and unjustified overcharges on their governmental customers for several years,” said Attorney General Brown in a statement. “The L.A. school district and the other governmental agencies desperately need every available dollar in these hard economic times.” A total of $160 million will be refunded to the agencies.

15 California State University campuses, including five from the LA region, will receive solar power generated energy in a private-public partnership with SunEdison who will install panels on rooftops, parking canopies and other ground-mounted displays at campuses. This initiative will increase the university system's use of alternative energy from 20% to 25% (small steps, small steps), the LA Times says. Locally, the Los Angeles, Fullerton, Pomona, Channel Islands and San Bernardino campuses wil be included in the program.

This morning at 9:15 a.m., power at 12 Metro Red and Purple Line train stations between Wilshire/Western and North Hollywood went out for 55 minutes, according to a Metro Spokesperson. No one was hurt or injured, and operations slowed down but never fully stopped. However, patrons riding in elevators at two stations, Wilshire/Normandie and Vermont/Sunset, were stuck for at least fifteen minutes before fire department crews could rescue them. While the Dept. of Water & Power reported no outages at street level, Metro later discovered the problem was within their own system dealing with alternating current. Power never halted on the rails and trains still ran, albeit at a slower speed delaying trains 13 minutes behind schedule and stations were still lit for commuters by emergency flood lights. The incident was cleared by 10:10 a.m.

Today, our computer is not about to explode like it was for the past two days in the sweltering heat. "The National Weather Service forecast highs for Thursday of between 69 and 79 near the Los Angeles County coast, 86 to 94 inland, 84 to 94 in the San Fernando Valley, 87 to 92 in the San Gabriel Valley, 88 and 93 in the Santa Clarita Valley and 82 and 91 in the Antelope Valley," reported the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

Since their 2005 contract takes inflation into account when are up for their annual raise, this year's expected 3.25% pay hike for LA Department of Water and Power employees shot up to 5.9% because food and fuel costs have gone up this past year. One problem, that equals out to $16.4 million not written into the budget. Even without the raise, DWP workers are some of the higest paid employees in the city.

Southern California Edison has announced that they're adding some new renewable energy to their profile. They'll be installing 303 wind turbines up in Gilliam and Morrow Counties in Oregon that will produce 909 megawatts of wind power and 2 billion kilowatt-hours per year.

Green initiatives and measures are going to dot ballots across the state this November and while "it's the thing to do" these days, they may not be the best choices. At the very least, as LAist commenter jrb said, "this election season some the initiatives are not exactly a quick study.

Southern California Edison (SCE) announced that they've now recycled 700,000 refrigerators in the last 15 years since the beginning of their Refrigerator and Freezer Recycling Program. The program has two parts: (1) you get $50 to recycle the fridge, and (2), you get another $50 if you buy a new Energy Star qualified fridge. According to SCE's director of energy efficiency per the Power Plug blog, people spend about an extra $300 a year with older refrigerators.

Following the lead of many other utilities, the Pasadena City Council on Friday took an official stance against Proposition 7, aka "Big Solar," which will appear on November's ballot asking voters to make utilities supply 20% of their power with renewable sources by 2010, 40% by 2020 and 50% by 2025. Pasadena Water and Power is a municipal owned utility and officials say that if passed, rates could jump 30 to 45%. While most people are not aware of the proposition, 63% would support it with 24% opposed, according to a Field Poll survey (.pdf). Opposition, which includes environmental groups and both the Democratic and Republican parties, basically say the prop has good intentions, but was written by people who didn't know what they were talking about and has many unintended consequences.

Pacific Gas & Electric, a utility that most serves Northern California, may join the No on Prop 8 campaign tomorrow at a press conference. "They know exactly what they are doing here. They need some credibility with the left, especially in San Francisco," writes Brian Leubitz at Calitics. "As for other companies, I expect we'll see a few other businesses." Which businesses in Southern California will join in? Will Southern California Edison? How about Southern California Gas Company?

From 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., an excessive heat warning is in effect, according to the National Weather Service. And going along with the state's Flex (Your Power) Alert, the NWS has also issued an excessive heat watch through Thursday evening.

Time to hunker down and flex your power, so says state officials. "The California Independent System Operator (CAISO), charged with managing the electricity grid in California, has issued a Flex Alert for Tuesday, July 8th through Thursday, July 10th," an e-mail alert states. "Due to the current hot weather, electricity conservation is necessary."

For six weeks, ex-LA City Beat writer Alan Mittelstaedt has been trying to get a hold of DWP's CEO and General Manager's personal water bills, something that must be released by law within 10 days of request. The reporter was ready to bring the DWP to court, but before that, the Daily News printed a story about Nahai's bills but left out the backstory on why Nahai was all of the sudden releasing this info. "[The Daily News reporter] deserves to be hauled before the Court of Public Opinion and denounced as a toady for writing a puff piece devoid of even a hint of the real reason that Nahai coughed up his bills and hired an auditor to examine waste at his 6,012-square-foot Benedict Canyon palace," Mittelstaedt wrote in reaction to the series of events.

Ex-LA City Beat writer Alan Mittelstaedt (known as the LA Sniper) might sue the LA Dept. of Water & Power General Manager and CEO David Nahai over a California Public Records Request violation -- Nahai won't give up his personal water bills for his 6,012-square foot Benedict Canyon mansion. Mittelstaedt thinks the bills will show Nahai's lifestyle is opposite the one his department preaches: sustainability and green. "We’re in ongoing discussions with DWP’s attorneys and are hopeful that the bills will be released by the end of the week," the reporter told LAist in an e-mail. If not released by then, Mittelstaedt will sue. UPDATE: Nahai released an audit of his home energy use to the Daily News. He has an average bimonthly electric bill of $414.

When the power goes out, that means the traffic lights go with it, making it harder to tell if there is even a traffic light there to begin with (especially if you're unfamiliar the neighborhood). Despite that, signals that are out must be treated like a stop sign. The LAPD never seems to send these educational warnings out, but this friendly reminder comes from the Los Angeles Fire Department. "With power out to many traffic signals in the North Hollywood area, Los Angeles Firefighters remind you to always treat darkened traffic signals as a 4-way stop." Thank you Web 2.0 Department of the Century. Thank you.

What the LA Department of Water & Power is saying today during the heatwave: "Yesterday's energy peak reached 5856 megawatts, and was the second highest load in June. Today's peak demand is expected to reach or exceed the record of 6165 megawatts, set on July 24, 2006. While the LADWP has enough power to meet the city's needs, extraordinary demand during prolonged hot temperatures puts a tremendous strain on the city's electrical distribution equipment. Customers are asked to do their part by cutting back on energy usage. For its part, the LADWP's crews remain prepared to respond to any outages. As of 2 p.m., less than 60 out 1.4 million customers were experiencing outages."

With temperatures soaring past 100 degrees in the Valley and with other parts of Los Angeles feeling sticky, it's no surprise that energy use spiked yesterday.

Only 102 of the 958 city buildings expected to get CFLs have installed the energy-efficient lightbulbs and City Controller Laura Chick is saying that the program is not going fast enough. So far, the city has replaced enough to save $1.5 million on the annual $27-million power bill. However, replacing the bulbs came at the price of $5 million, but costs are expected to be recovered over time with estimated savings of $6 million a year.

Slowly we've seen man replaced by the machine, but at 3 parking lots in Long Beach they're powering the machines with a force even more powerful: the sun! According to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the LBC's "Redevelopment Agency has replaced the honor boxes at three downtown lots with solar-powered pay stations." These units run on the energy generated by "a solar panel that's placed on top of the pay station." Even better yet, these machines (which cost the Agency $51,000) allow parking lot patrons to pay via cash, coin, or debit card in exchange for the little ticket you leave on your dashboard.

A report released from the Brookings Institution says Honolulu has the lowest carbon footprint of any city in the United States. Then at number two is Los Angeles, which is a surprise considering the city's sprawling car culture and industry. Who is not surprised is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office. His deputy for energy and environment told the LA times that "sprawl is a lot worse in other parts of the U.S." and that the city has a "moderate climate, with fewer heating and air-conditioning days, and [it has] relatively newer, less drafty housing stock" than in other parts of the country.